Dean Houdeshell Houdeshell itibaren Rovná, Çek Cumhuriyeti itibaren Rovná, Çek Cumhuriyeti

i tried really hard to make the book go slow as i won't get another sookie romp until oct - but here i am less then a week hot in hand and i'm done - damn it!. charlaine did not fail to impress on this one. all fairy all the time - i really loved this book and of course she served up some eric - extra smooth. delightful

What an excellent read! This story had me tearing up within the first 100 pages. It's a story about this woman named Zoe Baxter who wants to have a baby more than anything in the world. But unfortunately she is unable to get pregnant, and her husband Max isn't very fertile. So they begin in Vitro which helps them produce a few eggs each cycle so she can try to get pregnant. She has a few miscarriages, but manages to carry one baby as far as 28 weeks...only to start bleeding at her baby shower, and to deliver a still born not long afterwards. Zoe is crushed, and I fully admit I cried. I had a friend who lost a baby, very early in her pregnancy, but all the same- losing a baby is losing a baby. I love the emotions that a JP novel can bring out in me. I also love that excited feeling when you are reading a book and can't wait to get back into it. This book did that for me. I read the first 60 pages or so in a waiting room and could not put it down. Unfortunately I had to because my two best friends read it with me and we agreed to only read a few short tracks at a time so we could stop and discuss. Anyways, after Zoe lost her baby, she found out she -could- try to get pregnant again. I guess she figured since her last pregnancy had come so close, that maybe the next pregnancy would bring her even closer to term and hopefully to deliver a healthy baby. But Max did not want to go through with it again, after finding out a disorder that Zoe had that made blood clots much easier to get. The baby had died because the placenta sheared away from the baby. Although it was dangerous, Zoe was willing to take a chance and try again. This is what tore Max and Zoe apart. He did not want to go through another cycle, the expenses of in Vitro were adding up and at that point he did not even want to be a dad. So he divorces Zoe. Then Zoe starts hanging out with an acquaintance she had met a few years earlier named Vanessa. The two start hanging out more and soon become best friends, and after that lovers. So now Zoe is a lesbian and since Vanessa is younger and able to get pregnant, Vanessa and Zoe want to use Zoe's embryos to get pregnant. Of course this is where the infamous controversy comes in, just like in all JP books. In order for the embryos to go to Zoe max has to sign off on it because they are his too. Meanwhile after their divorce Max was drinking and actually got into a wreck before he "found Jesus" and started going to his brothers church (he has also moved in with his brother at this point) so of course when he finds out his ex is now gay and wants to use the embryos to get her girlfriend (wife eventually, they go and get married) pregnant. Max can't have that now that his new Eternal God Glory Church (may have gotten that wrong) is totally against gays and he rather his brother and his wife Liddy who also can't have kids, get their embryos instead. So they wind up going to court over who the Embryos should go to. The situation gets sticky from there and in the end Max is rewarded custody of them only after Zoe gives in when she is accused of being inappropriate with one of her music therapy patients (she wasn't, it was a misunderstanding) but because Lucky, the teen Zoe is working with, is the step daughter of the Pastor of Max's church, of course it gets made into a big deal. At the very end of the book Max gives Zoe the custody and she and Vanessa have the baby, so there are two mom's, Max stays in the child's life so the child has a father, and SURPRISE- Max is now marrying his brothers former wife (in the book he had an affair with her and had always loved her) but just as in any JP novel, it doesn't disclose how on earth that happened but wow, what a shocker! So yes, I loved the story. Definitely one of my favorite Picoult books.

I am writing this pre-review review in fear I might forget this thought when I'm actually done reading it. Just a little confession first. I'm not big on lengthy description. I know it's the writer painting me a picture but I can pretty much paint that picture with just a few words. Surprisingly, this book with its descriptive paragraphs has held my attention long enough to appreciate it. :) That's definitely a first for me. Now, let me get back to the book *********** Now, I'm done. Claire Messud's writing does remind me(like one of the critics put it) of Edith Wharton. The plot does not drag on and it gets you thinking. My kind of book. :)

It may be premature to identify a writer’s interests as obsessions when his fictional output includes just a single collection of short stories, and now a novel; but from the first pages of Caribou Island, it is clear that David Vann has some things that he cannot get out of his head. Bleak and terrifying things, too: suicide as an act of aggression, nature’s power to reflect and inspire madness, and the perverse allure of doomed endeavors. Read more...

Probably the second best fantasy series in history after the LOTR.

Rezension Dieses Buch war mein zweiter Thriller von dieser Autorin und sie hat mich hiermit endgültig überzeugt. Ihr Schreibstil ist vielleicht nicht übermäßig anspruchsvoll und eine teils (wenn auch selten) sehr vulgäre Wortwahl (ob gewollt oder der Übersetzung zu verdanken, kann ich leider nicht beurteilen) haben mich etwas gestört. Aber alles in allem ist das Buch spannend, kurzweilig und sehr fesselnd geschrieben. Es lässt sich wunderbar flüssig lesen und ich hatte zu keiner Zeit das Gefühl gegen einen zähen Strom anschwimmen zu müssen. Wobei das auch der Handlung geschuldet sein könnte- großes Lob dafür an die Autorin! Die ganz großen Wendungen sind zwar letztendlich ausgeblieben, aber für mich waren trotzdem einige Überraschungen und ein verblüffendes Ende dabei. Ich empfand die Handlung als größtenteils sehr gut durchdacht und letztlich fügt sich (fast) alles zusammen. Zwar verläuft der ein oder andere Handlungsstrang irgendwie im Sand bzw. etwas zu glatt, aber das lässt sich leicht verzeihen. Denn die Charaktere sind wirklich toll gezeichnet! Da ist weder der perfekte, allwissende und unfehlbare Ermittler, noch wird der Leser schlau aus Elise Laird. Und für mich hat gerade diese Ungewissheit das gewisse Etwas der Geschichte ausgemacht. Immer, wenn ich dachte, ich hätte ihren Charakter irgendwie durchschaut, passiert etwas, das die Dinge im Allgemeinen und Elise im Speziellen wieder in ein völlig anderes Licht rückt. Bis man dann wirklich erfährt, was es mit ihren Motiven auf sich hat und auf wessen Seite sie eigentlich steht, lässt es sich herrlich mit Detective Duncan mitfiebern. Er hat seine Stärken und Schwächen und war mir sehr sympathisch, genau wie seine Kollegen. Die sind als Nebencharaktere sehr liebevoll gezeichnet sind und vor Allem seine Partnerin DeeDee hat mit ihrer herrlichen Art und ihrem Humor noch jede Menge Witz mit eingebracht. Fazit Eine Mischung aus spannender Story, interessanten Charakteren und natürlich dem gewissen Brown´schen romantisch-erotischen Etwas .